


Being on fire will keep you awake

by owlaholic68



Series: A bed of California stars [6]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 2
Genre: Arroyo, Gen, Major spoilers for the main storyline, Minor Character Death, Symbolic Haircut, The Enclave - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 06:37:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11480751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlaholic68/pseuds/owlaholic68
Summary: The GECK was in her hands. The Chosen One succeeds in her mission.Instead of a happy ending, fate rips away everything she loves.





	Being on fire will keep you awake

Carla sees the smoke first, thick and dark on the horizon.

At first she thinks it’s Klamath, but then checks her Pip-Boy laying on the dashboard. Without a doubt, it’s her village. She shifts the car into a higher gear and starts speeding recklessly down the crumbled road. Her fingers keep clenching and unclenching around the steering wheel, her knuckles white and trembling.

“Oh no,” Marcus rumbles from the backseat. “Is that…”

She grimly nods. One of her long twin braids is thrown over her shoulder, the other one falling heavy to her lap. A suitcase, a precious treasure, is in the front seat. In the Vault, she had clutched it to her chest and profusely thanked Gruthar, a relieved grin on her face. Now, she can’t even look at it without her stomach lurching in anxiety. _What if this was all for nothing?_ She worries, seeing the smoke growing closer and closer. _What’s the use in finding the GECK if the people it’s for…?_

She forces herself to stop thinking until the edge of the canyon comes into view. She slams on the brakes, turns off the car, and throws open her door.

The village is gone.

Even from here, she can see the wrecked and burning tents, the crushed gardens, the _corpses_ lying face down in the wreckage. Men, women, children, _family_ , left in pools of their own blood.

“No, no, _no_!” she screams, forcing herself to look at the destruction. Piles of green goo litter the ground between tents. _Energy weapons_ , Carla realizes with a shudder. _These were not raiders, or geckos, or even a disease._

She runs to the edge of the canyon before she spots the broken rope bridge, dangling from the far side. Without it, there’s no way over to the village from here. Then Carla spots the body, the only person on this side of the canyon.

“Chosen One,” he croaks, raising his bloodied head to look blearily at her.

“Hakunin!” She yells, skidding to her knees at his side. Behind her, Marcus respectfully keeps his distance.

Hakunin, village shaman, is on the edge of death. His detailed ornamentation is mostly shattered, his holy robes torn and soaked with blood. Carla reaches for a Stimpack, then realizes that these injuries are beyond even the best medicine’s help.

“What happened?” she feels numb, but her hands are shaking. There’s nothing she can do for him. For anyone.

“Dark souls came. They took everyone.” As usual, he can’t manage to speak plainly. But this time, she tries her best to understand.

“Dark souls? What do you mean? Who’s that?”

“A rush of wind came. On it were great metal dragonflies that spat flame. Evil men crawled from the beasts’ bellies and brought death to our warriors.”

Carla’s heart sinks. If this was who she thought it was…

“Our warriors c-couldn’t stop them?” Tears start to roll down her cheeks. _Of course they couldn’t stop them. Nobody stops the Enclave. Not even me._

“The spirit was willing, but the spearheads were weak.” Hakunin seems to lose consciousness for a moment.

“Hakunin!” Carla shakes him awake. “You said that they took everyone else. Where did they go?”

“The winds took them South,” he mumbles. “They planned to rest their beasts at a place called Navarro before crossing the great basin of our earth-mother’s tears.”

“T-the ocean,” her shoulders shake with quiet sobs. “I’ll go find them.”

“Thank the ancestors.” He’s drifting away. “Now my soul may join the eternal song. Safe journey, Chosen.” His eyes close, and with his last breath he says, “Save our people.”

Then he’s gone.

Carla wails in anguish. It bounces off the canyon walls below her, echoing in her own ears. She slams the palms of her hands on the ground as if to call out to the earth-mother herself, to plead _why_ and _how could you let this happen_ and _please please let this be a bad dream_. She screams until she runs out of breath, until her voice is hoarse and her dry throat is sore. She hits the earth again and again until her hands are bloody and aching.

Then she lets her anger fade into the earth, slumping over with her hands still on the dusty rock. _If only I had gotten here sooner._ She sobs and clutches at the tattered vault suit draped around her shoulders. _I was supposed to be their hero, their Chosen One, and I failed them. If only I had been smarter, faster, better. Maybe then…_

She stops herself, pushes through the crushing self-blame. _I can’t think like that if I want to rescue them. I’m still their hero. There-there’s still people left to save. And if-_ she forces herself to think of the worst scenario, the nightmare brewing in her head, _if there’s no one left to save, then I’ll make the Enclave pay for what they’ve done. I’ll scorch them from this earth if that’s the last thing I do._

She sits up and brushes a stray lock of hair from her forehead.

“M-Marcus,” she stutters, seeing him standing a few feet away. She beckons him over. He says nothing, kneeling down to join her. “Help me with him.” She grabs Hakunin’s feet, Marcus picking up the rest of his body. Carla silently prays for his soul to find peace, then throws his corpse into the canyon.

She covers her ears and closes her eyes. _At least I could give his body the ending it deserves,_ she consoles herself, knowing that countless other bodies lay on the far side, unable to fully rejoin the earth.

Marcus, still silent, puts a heavy hand on her shoulder. She takes his hand and squeezes it, then lets go and picks up something from the ground.

“One more thing.” She raises a plain knife, Hakunin’s knife, razor-sharp, to her chin. She grabs her left braid, adjusts the knife in her bloody hand, and shears straight through. Her thick hair puffs out in cloudy curls around her damp cheeks.

She kisses the long braid and throws it into the canyon.

“For the dead.” _May they rest in peace._

Then she does the same to the other side. Now her previously waist-length hair barely reaches her chin. She kisses this shiny hunk of hair too, and tosses it down.

“For the living.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Fire" by Kimya Dawson. 
> 
> Come find me on [Tumblr.](owlaholic68.tumblr.com)


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